Jared Hess

"Napoleon Dynamite" director Jared Hess is well aware that his particular style of aggressively quirky humor isn't for everyone. He's fine with that. The 30-year-old filmmaker admits that even his own grandmother -- with whom he shares a warm relationship and a love of western history -- is baffled by his oddball sensibility and his popularity with the youth of today. "She was talking to one of my younger brothers," Hess recounted recently over breakfast, "and she said, 'Well I'm glad Jared likes this history stuff, 'cause I tell you what, this comedy thing sure isn't gonna last much longer!

"Napoleon Dynamite" director Jared Hess is well aware that his particular style of aggressively quirky humor isn't for everyone. He's fine with that. The 30-year-old filmmaker admits that even his own grandmother -- with whom he shares a warm relationship and a love of western history -- is baffled by his oddball sensibility and his popularity with the youth of today. "She was talking to one of my younger brothers," Hess recounted recently over breakfast, "and she said, 'Well I'm glad Jared likes this history stuff, 'cause I tell you what, this comedy thing sure isn't gonna last much longer!

Napoleon Dynamite: Like, the Best Special Edition Ever! (Fox, two discs, $26.98) ANYONE who might still be mulling summer vacation plans should be tickled to learn that it is not too late to book tickets for the second annual Napoleon Dynamite Festival on July 7 and 8 in Preston, Idaho.

* LEHIGH (3-7) at PEPPERDINE (8-5), 7--The Waves will attempt to end a three-game losing streak in their last nonconference home game. Pepperdine couldn't overcome the letdown of Tuesday's controversial 68-66 loss at UCLA in time to avoid falling at Pacific, 64-58, on Thursday in the last of six consecutive road games. Lehigh is coming off a 69-65 loss to Cornell. The Mountain Hawks' scoring leaders are senior forwards Jared Hess and Fido Willyboro, who each average 11 points.

Single-digit temperatures in Park City, Utah, have not deterred dealmakers from heating up Main Street with a spate of acquisitions highlighting the first half of the Sundance Film Festival. Miramax and Fox Searchlight struck a joint deal to distribute "Garden State," a romantic comedy written and directed by "Scrubs" star Zach Braff, who also stars. Separately, Fox Searchlight picked up Utah filmmaker Jared Hess' quirky comedy "Napoleon Dynamite."

For something so slight, the new comedy "Napoleon Dynamite" has a surprisingly polarizing effect on audiences. Within 15 seconds of the title character's appearance, you'll either think he is the most astonishingly original creation you've ever seen or realize that you are in for a very long 88-minute ride. The feature-directing debut of Idaho native Jared Hess, who wrote the screenplay with his wife, Jerusha, the movie is a cartoonish paean to its uber-nerd antihero.

HURTLING across the screen in sky-blue stretchy pants worn under apple-red underwear, Jack Black makes a lasting impression. He's bouncy. He's kinetic. He flies into solid objects with great force. Days after seeing him in "Nacho Libre," Jared Hess' sweet, dumb-funny follow-up to "Napoleon Dynamite" (which he also co-wrote with his wife, Jerusha Hess), I kept picturing Black as a giant Super Ball.

Before the dawn of "Caprica," another reason to talk about: "Battlestar Galactica." "The Plan" is the final chapter of "Galactica" in its current incarnation. The original movie, a prequel of sorts that premieres on DVD this week, tells the story of the Cylons' rebellion against the humans from the robots' perspective. A final Emmy call for Tricia Helfer as Six? So say we all! (Tuesday) Celebrate Halloween by talking about: "Roseanne." You thought I was going to say "The Simpsons: Tree House of Horror," didn't you?

For the last few years, Michael Angarano has been concentrating on independent films, so when he learned about the Jackie Chan-Jet Li martial arts adventure "The Forbidden Kingdom" at a basketball game with his agent, he wasn't certain that would be the film for him. "You never know what you could be doing next," says the 20-year-old actor. "It was exciting, though it wasn't something I obsessed over. I knew just as well that it could not be the next thing I would be doing.

It's a timeless story line: Outcasts find one another, discover their collective strength and prevail against the philistines who once made their lives miserable. In a recent spate of films, those outcasts have been redrawn to address America's halting acceptance of diversity, and perhaps razz the religious right while they're at it. Not only do these motley and imperfect characters testify to the glories of embracing multiculturalism, they offer their own as a means of deliverance.

THE film that may come closest to living up to CineVegas' self-proclaimed billing as "The World's Most Dangerous Film Festival" is John Maringouin's bizarrely gothic "Running Stumbled." The documentary follows the filmmaker as he returns to his Louisiana hometown after a 25-year absence and, in a peculiar reunion that seems distinctly of the South, drops in on his father, Johnny Roe Jr., a painter and lifelong drug abuser.